Cancers in breasts are masses of cells which may have an increased blood supply, perhaps with an underdeveloped or non-existent nervous system and/or an increased metabolic rate. Any of these mechanisms can contribute to a greater capacity, as compared to that of normal tissue, to deliver heat to the overlying skin when cooled.
Breast thermal imaging is a method of examining a patient's breasts by cooling the skin while imaging the skin surface temperature. A region of skin with warmer surface temperatures or reduced cooling rates relative to the surrounding areas may indicate a relatively greater capacity for heating and hence a possible cancerous mass.
Current thermal imaging equipment requires a patient to stand or sit upright while room temperature air is blown by fans to cool the breasts while they are being imaged. This may lead to three difficulties. First, breathing movement by the patient causes image registration problems. Second, gravity acting on the breasts while the patient's torso is in a vertically upright position may cause occlusion along the bottom of the breasts. Third, the angle of the image rays relative to the top, bottom and sides of the breasts may approach a tangent, causing poor image resolution at those areas.